


Climbing the walls

by sarcasmismyweapon



Series: Equilibrium [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Cute, Fluff, Funny, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Peter scares Tony, Precious Peter Parker, Sarcasm, Spidey Senses, peter parker climbs walls, peter parker sticks to things, spider-man senses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 15:49:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20566904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarcasmismyweapon/pseuds/sarcasmismyweapon
Summary: Sometimes the world gets to be too much for Peter, his senses go haywire and all he wants is silence. His afternoon with Mr. Stark is sure to be ruined when his head can't take anymore, he unwittingly scares the crap out of his mentor and that results in Peter having to endure Mr. Starks curiosity.Could be read as a standalone fic, but belongs to my Five years too many work.





	Climbing the walls

**Author's Note:**

> So this is a one-shot that was created after I was editing one of the last chapters of Fiver years too many, it just sparked me into writing how that entire scene might play out. And thus this fic was born XD.

It was supposed to just be a normal after school day with Mr. Stark, arrive at the compound go into the lab and wait for Mr. Stark. They’d work on some project together whether it be his web-shooters or some Iron-man thing for the man’s more advanced suits, hell they even spent an entire afternoon building a mock-up of what the best configuration for a toaster which would auto-sense toast and make it perfect every time. That had gotten them some odd looks from Mrs. Potts, but it had still been fun. 

This was not fun, Peter was cradling his head in his hands as he tried futilely to block out everything around him. He’d managed to make it to the compound by sheer force of will, the outside din of the city, the cars and people had just started things off but even now his mind was just in overdrive. Unable to calm down and sending off shocks of alarm through his spider-sense anytime something shifted around him, Peter had tried to stay calm he really had. 

To stay still in the lab and just breathe but the droids were there and they were always curious about him, something that Mr. Stark probably put them up too but now seemed all the more like torture than something akin to playtime. Peter hadn’t even heard Friday ask him if he was alright, shouting out a hasty ‘be quiet’ which had sent the room into an abrupt silence that didn’t make things any better which was probably why Peter had made a dash to get back to his own room. 

The fact that Mr. Stark had granted him his own room for whenever he might need to crash there was nice, after all, the man didn’t need to do that he could always just tell Peter to go home but he never did when they ended up staying up too late on a project. Peter had a second home there and at the moment he was going to take full use of it as he ran to the safe seclusion that his room made. 

Sadly it wasn’t to be, Peter jerked to a stop when he heard Mrs. Potts just down the hallway, coming his way and talking on a phone. It grated on his already fried nerves, sending sporadic jolts of pain and distorted signals of sound and movement that had him reeling for stability. 

Hence why Peter found himself on the ceiling tucked into a small corner of the hallway as he braced himself against the wall and tried to ride out his own brains stupid meltdown. Mrs. Potts passed under him without a clue, but Peter didn’t have the capacity to find humor in that as he curled up tightly into a ball and prayed for his brain to shut up. It didn’t seem to want to listen to him, stupid brain.

***********

Tony sighed as he gave a cheerful wave before abruptly ending the call, groaning as he called out to Friday. “Do not let me accept that man’s calls again while sober.” The fact that he wasn’t drinking anymore need not be said.

“Of course boss, but do you think it’s wise to ignore the secretary of state?”

“Wise, no...Smart, yes.” Tony mused as he made his way out of the briefing room he’d taken to using as a hub for annoying phone calls. That had been the pinnacle of annoying phone calls, shaking it off Tony called out. “Is my friendly spider here yet?” Tony snickered, he loved messing with the kid.

“Peter arrived twenty-seven minutes ago.”

“Great...Just gotta check on something up top and then I’ll head down to the lab.” He’d no sooner made it the length of a single doorway than did Friday chime in.

“Peter is not presently in the lab.”

Tony frowned as he continued towards his destination, checking in with Pepper. “He’s not?”

“No. Peter was last headed towards his bedroom given his current trajectory.”

Tony bobbed his head, alright made sense, the kid had some crap to drop off before they played around. “I’ll just be a minute Friday, let him know if he asks.”

“Sure thing boss.”

Smiling as he opened his wife's door Tony stilled when he saw the deep scowl on her face. Crap. That could be the result of a great many things, but Tony was wise enough not to fold to just the look, let alone give himself away for something that she might not yet know about.

“Sweetie-Sugar plu-”

“Really Tony? A fruit basket?”

Tony blinked a few times before stammering. “Are fruit basket’s not good now? I thought those were all the rage, like here’s fruit enjoy kinda thing.” He waved his hand in the air before adding. “You like fruit...Well, not strawberries but we won’t go into that.”

Pepper huffed at his comment. “You sent the deligation team a fruit basket, those lawyers are helping us sort out this mess.”

Tony snorted. “I didn’t send the fruit basket to our lawyer's Pep.” He came forward into the room now that he knew what it was about. Sitting down on the edge of the woman’s desk he gave her a broad grin. “I sent that to the opposing side, a sorry you’re going to lose gift.”

Pepper pursed her lips. “Tony.”

He held up a hand. “I ran it by Byran, he said that so long as I didn’t use any adult language or insinuated anything particularly negative or otherwise...Implacable words that it was fine.”

Pepper sighed before in a dry tone asked. “You asked your lawyer if it was okay to send the other lawyers a fruit basket?”

Tony nodded. “They should have loved it, lots of fruit more than enough to go around. Might even feed some of those poor pre-law kids they had scraping their shoes.”

Pepper shook her head. “I can’t believe you.” She ran a hand through her hair. “They’re not amused Tony and frankly neither am I, this is bad-”

“I didn’t use any bad language.” Tony piped up quickly. “Bryan’s on my side.” As if that mattered in the grand scheme of things.

Pepper gave him a flat look. “Bryan’s on whoever is writing the check’s side.”

“So mine.” Tony nodded.

“I write all the checks.”

The billionaire frowned. “Hmm...I know I own one of those things somewhere, I’ll cut him a check.”

Pepper shook her head at the audacity of her husband. “Just...Don’t send any more gifts.” She pleaded with him.

Tony raised up his fingers in a boy scout salute. “Promise. Now, I came in here to forwarn you about a nasty little virus that plagued our phone lines. Be careful what calls you’re taking alright?”

“Calls? What was it an unknown number or something?” Pepper glanced over towards her phone and the call log that appeared on the digital screen. Nothing seemed odd there, she glanced back up to Tony when the man replied.

“I told Friday to warn me, so you should be good to go but a little caution never hurt nobody.” He smiled never revealing just who the particular virus was.

Pepper nodded, a small frown still marring her features. “Right...Are you going downstairs then?”

“I have retained custody of a spider today so yeah.”

Pepper smirked as Tony referred to Peter by his superhero name. “Tell Peter hi for me.”

“Will do.” Tony gave a wave as he made to leave. “Love you sugarplum.” Tony laughed when Pepper shouted back at him.

“You better not have sent any of those in that basket!”

God did he love that woman. It was a relatively short trip through the halls of the compound it was as he was walking that he called out. “So is our little spider in the lab or is he hanging out in his room still?” Sometimes Peter got caught up in things, kinda like he did, best to check before he made it all the way down to the lab only to find it vacant of one particular spider.

“Peter is not in the lab boss, he’s also not in his room.”

Tony huffed. “Kitchen then, alright thanks Friday...Remember unless the place is on fire, the president is calling or Pepper is threatening me, don’t disturb us.”

“On it boss.”

Nodding Tony made his way into the kitchen expecting to find a ravenous superhuman teenager, he found nothing. Frowning a moment Tony shrugged, the kid must have grabbed his snack and gone on the run. Following the spance of the room around towards the next hallway which lead towards the nearest elevator, Tony hummed to himself. 

If they were lucky they might be able to finish that disruption field that they’d been tinkering around with, if they were really-really lucky the damned thing might work. Tony was already computing some of the numbers and materials that might be called into question when he was given the fright of his life.

“Hi, Mr. Stark.”

Tony twisted sharply, too sharply, tripping over his own feet and crashing backward onto his ass on the hard floor with a shocked flail and shout. Sitting there breath rattling in his frantic lungs, heart going a mile a minute Tony tilted his head upward and found that the voice that had caused him to nearly have a heart attack was none other than the spider he’d been searching for. Peter was tucked up tightly into the corner of the hallway, he looked repentant for having scared him but none of that mattered at the moment.

“Jesus Chris kid!”

“Sorry.” Peter slid down the length of the wall as if it was just a slide and not a vertical surface that nobody else had the hope of climbing barehanded. Coming forward the teen held out a hand which Tony graciously accepted, still amazed with how easy it was for Peter to yank him to his feet without ever losing his own foothold. 

Standing there before the teen Tony took a few calming breaths before his eyes went back towards the ceiling where the teen had not two seconds ago been perched in. Looking down at Peter, Tony shook his head. “You about scared me to death kid.”

“Sorry.” Peter grimaced as he reached back to rub his head. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

Tony laughed. “Startle, no.” He shook his head. “Startle means you startled, I was more than startled, I was so much more than startled kid. I have a bad heart and you just caused it to flatline and then restart which is not in line with a healthy heart rhythm.”

Peter scrunched up his brow at that, no doubt knowing that it was faulty science but unable to combat the man’s words as Tony continued. “You don’t go climbing walls when there aren’t any bad guys to sling up...Jesus kid, why indoors? Ya know what? Nope, I’m not letting you be the cause of my early grave, so we’re gonna go down and do today’s project that you just inspired.” Tony twisted sharply and began heading towards the elevator that he’d intended to use all along.

“Umm...What project?” Peter ran to catch up with the older man, giving him eager eyes as the scientist spun around once they were in the elevator to give him a grin.

“We’re going to find some kind of surface that you don’t stick to and then I’m going to redo every damn wall in this place.”

Peter frowned. “What? Why?... Isn’t that like expensive-” Peter snapped his mouth shut when Mr. Stark raised a brow at him. Sighing Peter muttered. “I know.”

Tony laughed when the kid caught his own error, Peter always forgot that Tony literally was a billionaire ten times over. Patting the kid on the back the mechanic informed the teen. “As for why, well we’re doing this so Spider-man doesn’t give Ironman a heart attack.”

Peter gave a dower look towards the man. “I didn’t mean too.”

“Tell that to my heart kid.”

“It wasn’t going to flatline,” Peter informed the man idly, giving a small smirk when he added. “But it did skip a few beats.”

Tony scowled at the teen’s remark. “Cute, alright spidey let’s go see what you can and can’t stick too.”

Peter shrugged, thus far he hadn’t found anything he couldn’t stick too, but he was game if Mr. Stark was. Coming inside the lab the pair made their way towards the main work station, Tony was quick to discard quite a few pieces of trash into a nearby trash can. How the items didn’t make it there in the first place eluded Peter but he just stood back and let the man clean things up. When the better part of the table was clear of all debris did Mr. Stark pull out a Starkpad and start typing something. 

Peter hopped up onto a nearby stool and waited, he was sure that whenever Mr. Stark was ready for him he’d tell Peter. It only took ten minutes before Mr. Stark was smiling at whatever results he’d been given, looking up from his Starkpad the genius regaled the teen with a simple. “We have a surface library of 2,457 items.”

Peter blinked. “Surface library?”

Tony nodded. “Meaning I have samples of all of these things here.” He waved a hand at the lab. “Or more accurately down there.” He pointed to the floor, there were many lower layers where a lot of the man’s materials were kept.

Peter nodded along, looking up from the floor to question. “So we’re gonna test a few?”

Tony smiled as he tapped something on the Starkpad before putting it aside. “A few? No.” Tony shook his head. “Friday you know the drill.”

“On it boss.”

Peter looked up at the ceiling where he knew one of Friday’s camera’s to be and then back down to Mr. Stark. “What’s she doing?”

“Transfering samples to vacuum seals.” Friday intoned suddenly before Tony could speak. “ETA to lab 4 is 1 minute and ten seconds.”

Tony gave a grin at the teen who was staring back at him in surprise. “Hope May isn’t expecting you home tonight kid.”

“Wait. Wait...Are we testing all of them?!”

Tony cracked his knuckles and with a challenging look in his eye replied. “Let’s see what my new walls are going to be made of, up to you how many that is.”

“That’s not up to me! Mr. Stark, I don’t even know why I stick to things!”

Tony laughed at the frantic teen. “Well, we can save that mystery for another time, right now we’re going to ensure that I’m not given another heart attack walking around in my own building. 

Peter shook his head just as a vacuum sound funneled into the room before the tubing that was used to transport smaller items to the lab chimed. Granted what Mr. Stark considered small was not, the tubing network that he had could send up items that were far large than any other network Peter had ever seen, those being at a bank respectively. 

Tony walked over and opened the metal hatch, seeing a case with ten different slabs of materials layered on top of one another. “Perfect.” Reaching in Tony took the case and made his way back to the workstation, calling out. “Friday you make sure you get this.”

“Recording as always boss.”

Peter sighed as he watched Mr. Stark unlock the case itself and pull out each of the samples that were five by five plates of different surfaces. When the ten samples were laid out before them did Mr. Stark pick one up turn it over in his hands and then nod upon reading whatever it was composed of. “Alright spidey, cling to this.” He held the slab out in front of him with both hands insinuating that he wanted Peter to stick his hand to it and try and pull it away. 

The teen gave a small groan as he rose from his stool and came forward to do just that, laying his hand palm down onto the surface that Mr. Stark was holding out in front of him. “Are you sure about this?” The teen warily asked. “This could take a while.”

Tony snorted, this wouldn’t take long. “Pull.”

Peter nodded and did just that, taking the sample with him when his strength superseded Mr. Starks. Peter pulled the plate free with his other hand and set it aside with a small look of apprehension.

Tony shrugged. “One down. 2,456 to go.” Peter groaned as Mr. Stark picked up another plate of some material he thought might prevent Peter to climb. “Come on, let’s go we got a lot of ground to cover.” Tony shook the plate in his hand as if to entice the teen to get with the program.

“This isn’t going to work, I’ve climbed all sorts of things in town.” Peter lamented even as he reached out with a single hand, placed his palm on the surface and then pulled it out of Mr. Starks hand.

Tony nodded his head as he watched Peter set aside the plate of material, reaching out for another one he smirked at Peter. “2,455.” He wasn’t going to stop until he had something that the kid couldn’t stick too and no matter the teen's assurances that it wasn’t possible, Tony could do anything. 

Peter blew out a long breath of air and held out his hand.

***********

Peter had his head laying down across one of his arms while the other was sprawled out forward with his palm facing outward. He watched as Mr. Stark pushed an unknown surface against the palm of his hand which then saw Peter pulling it back away from the man’s hand. Mr. Stark grunted in annoyance, taking the plate back from the teen who was just sprawled out across the work station in boredom. “I told you this wouldn’t work,” Peter muttered.

Tony looked past the last plate that had failed. “We’ve only tried 1,245 still got plenty to go kid.”

Peter huffed. “Can’t I just promise not to climb the walls?”

Tony leveraged a disbelieving look at the teen. “Can you really follow through with that promise spider boy?”

“Spider-man.”

Tony smirked, he knew how to call the kid out. “Well?” He challenged.

Peter sighed. “I’d try.”

“ENH! Nice, but no cigar. My heart can’t take that, so stick out your hand and be a good little lab spider and don’t stick to this.”

Peter huffed but held out his hand once more, he stuck to it much to Mr. Starks annoyance. “Mr. Stark...Come on, I’ll just make sure to wear headphones next time.”

Tony frowned from the plates he was interchanging, pausing to look up at the kid. “Headphones? What’s headphones gotta do with you climbing my wall and scaring the Bejesus outta me?”

Peter colored a bit as he replied. “A lot.”

Tony frowned, setting aside the surface sample to cross his arms over his chest. “Spill.”

Peter groaned. “It’s not a big deal, I’ll just make sure to have my headphones, I forgot them at home today and so everything's kinda been too much.”

Tony tilted his head. “Too much what?” Peter shrugged. “No, what is too much? How are headphones fixing this, you got an ear infection...Wait you can’t get those.”

Peter snorted. “I don’t have an ear infection.” He couldn’t even recall having gotten one of those. “It’s just the whole senses dialed up to eleven thing.” He muttered quietly.

Tony scowled at the teen's attempts to avoid what was going on. “Say that again where I can hear you.”

Peter looked away from the man’s piercing gaze. “My senses...I can get overloaded sometimes. Too much noise, movement...Everything.” Peter rubbed at his arms even as he added. “Everything, even...Clothing, stuff touching me.” He sighed.

Tony stared back at the kid in shock, he knew they’d had a brief conversation about the kid's abilities or what at least his mutation had caused but Tony hadn’t really considered the cons of them. “Does...Does your suit bother you?” Cause that was really the only thing he could think of that he might be able to alter at that moment.

Peter looked up in surprise. “What? No! Mr. Stark my suits fine-” Peter started to ramble, afraid that the man might take it away if he thought it was harming him.

“Fine isn’t good enough, does it...Bother you like you said.” Tony waved a hand towards the boy's arms watching as Peter stopped his fidgeting at once.

“No.” Peter shook his head. “It’s...Different. It doesn’t bother me.” Peter gave the man a weak smile. “The mask, it helps cause it focuses everything and Karen can shut stuff out for me.”

Tony nodded his head, that made sense, of course, it made sense. Looking down at the plates that he’d been making the kid test out Tony grimaced. “Did this bother you? Did it hurt or-”

Peter snorted at the man’s concern, quickly informing the worried man. “It doesn’t hurt Mr. Stark.” Reaching out Peter picked up the last plate that Mr. Stark had been idly for his little experiment, Peter stuck it to his palm and twisted his hand upside down. “It’s just kinda funny.”

Tony gave a wry smirk, at least he didn’t have to be worried about having tortured the kid. “Haha. Put that down.”

Peter smiled as he released the plate and put it back on the table. “It doesn’t happen all the time Mr. Stark, it’s just that today I didn’t have my headphones on the subway and that’s kinda a tipping point ya know?” The teen admitted freely. “It takes a lot to...For my brain to calm down after all that noise and movement, all the people bumping into me.”

“And your headphones do enough?” The skepticism in the man’s voice was loud and clear.

Peter shook his head. “No, but it deals with the worst of it. My...You know that thing I was telling you about, how I can sense when something bads gonna happen?”

Tony gave a nod. “Yeah, the jury’s still out on how that works.” 

Peter smiled. “Yeah...Well whenever I get too keyed up from noise or whatever, it’s that only it doesn’t stop. It’s like my brain is-” Peter licked his lips as he tried to come up with something to explain the sensation to the man. “It’s like there’s a live wire in my head and I never know when somethings going to touch it.”

Tony stared back at the kid, he hadn’t known things were that bad. “Today was bad.” He assumed.

Peter nodded. “I-I got here and it just wouldn’t stop, I yelled at the droids.” Peter winced as he glanced towards the robots who were ‘working’ on the other side of the room.

Tony followed the kid's gaze to the robots before chuckling. “Kid I’ve done far worse to them then shout at them.” He reassured the teen before continuing. “How’d you end up on the ceiling?”

“I wanted to go to my room.” 

“Right...Got stuck there somehow?” Peter hummed, afraid to explain. “Kid?”

“Mrs. Potts was on the phone and she was coming down the hallway...I couldn’t take the noise.” Peter pointed up, Mr. Stark followed his movement only to chuckle.

“So you climbed the wall, literally.”

“Yeah.”

Tony laughed, it sounded horrible for the kid and Tony was glad that it appeared to be over with but damn if that wasn’t funny too. “Does my wife know that you climbed a wall to evade her?”

Peter’s eyes widened right before he shot out his hands and waved them. “No. NO! Mr. Stark, it wasn’t like that, I wouldn’t-” Peter sighed as Mr. Stark broke off into a grand fit of laughter. There was just no winning sometimes, Peter slumped back into the stool and waited. It took far longer than Peter felt it should have for Mr. Stark to gather himself once more. 

“Alright kid, so you get a live wire in your head from time to time...I’ll look into that.”

“How?” Peter frowned. “I thought you promised not to dissect me.”

Tony chuckled. “Cute. Nah, Friday did brain scans remember?”

“Oh yeah.” Peter bobbed his head, he’d completely forgotten about that. “Do you think that might show you something?”

Tony shrugged. “Might, then again I’m not a neurologist...Or really any kind of medical doctor.” He grinned. “But Bruce is pretty good about this, I’ll just send him a mystery file for him to ‘fix.’”

Peter grimaced, he hadn’t met Dr. Banner but this wouldn’t be the first time that ‘parts’ of him were sent to the man for him to work on. 

“Ah, don’t make that face, this might stop that brain of yours from having a system failure.”

Alright, Mr. Stark had him there. Nodding Peter conceded to the man’s wishes as if he had any other choice. Sensing that his brain troubles were now taken care of as far as Mr. Stark was concerned, Peter reached out and stuck his hand to another plate only to smirk up at Mr. Stark when he lifted it up off the table with just his palm.

“Show off.”

Peter laughed as he set it back down. “I told you that it wouldn’t work.”

Tony gave a loud guffaw. “Wouldn’t work? Kid, we haven’t even touched the tip of the iceberg. Friday how many samples we got left?”

The AI was quick to reply. “There are currently 1,098 available surface samples that Mr. Parker hasn’t stuck too.”

Tony gave a nod, looking back down at Peter and finding the dread on the boy's face. “So, what do you want on your pizza? We’re gonna be here a while.”

Peter groaned, letting his head fall down to rest on the table.

“None of that, unless you can stick to things with your head...Wait, can you do that?”

Peter tensed, that was not a good avenue to go down. “I want pineapple.”

“Heathen!”

Peter sighed in relief, at least Mr. Stark wouldn’t be liable to question him about sticking via other body parts now, not when he could rant about how horrible his choice in pizza toppings were. Canting his head up, resting just his chin on the table Peter smiled when Mr. Stark not only made their pizza order but also requested the next batch of surface samples for him to ‘not stick to’. 

“Seriously kid, I don’t think you’re trying very hard.”

Peter bit his lip a moment. “Sorry, Mr. Stark.”

Tony gave a nod as he held out another plate. “Alright, now don’t stick to this one.” He ordered the teen with a reproachful look.

Peter stuck to it anyway and quickly chose to avoid the man’s gaze as he broke down laughing while the other man began to rant about his strange ability to stick to things that no one in their right mind should be able to stick too and according to Mr. Stark that included spiders. 

Peter grinned as he waited for the next sample, at this point he wasn’t sure what he wanted most, to not stick to something just to watch the man be triumphant or to stick to everything just to be able to watch the man have to give in to what Peter had already told him. Peter could stick to anything, he was Spider-man after all. 


End file.
